The Quarters Game

As the cricket world cup nears the business end of the tournament, the Quarter Final line up have been all but decided.India have a game tomorrow against West Indies.Winner of that match will play Australia in the Quarters and the loser plays Sri Lanka.

For the sake of argument lets assume that India wins against West Indies tomorrow.

At first, most Indians would feel hard done by the fact that we face Australia in the quarters.This mentality has been gradually imbibed in the mind of Indians due to the dominance factor of Australia over the past decade.The reality now is much different. Australia is not the team they used to be 5 years ago and neither is India.If anything,I think India would fancy their chances against Australia than Sri Lanka.

The reason being India and Sri Lanka have played against each other so much in the recent past that both teams know each other Inside out. Sri Lanka are only too familiar with the sub continental conditions and most of their players specialize bowling and batting in these conditions.Like India, the pitch and the conditions is Sri Lanka's 12th man. It's just a matter of who exploits who's weaknesses more and that for India, is too risky a proposition to have, especially in the Quarters.

Australia on the other hand is a completely different prospect.Up until now Australia have just played 'average' to 'good' cricket. This got them through the minnows. Their victory against New Zealand was more because of a below-par performance by the black caps than anything else. Their game against Sri Lanka was washed-off and today they were comprehensively beaten by Pakistan.

Australia's problems in batting department galore. Apart from Shane Watson who has stood like a rock and Micheal Clarke , none of their batsmen have hit top gear. Ricky Ponting's poor form continues. Cameron White has scored a whopping 60 runs in his last 5 innings!. Brad Haddin,though he has got some runs, he has never looked convincing in the middle. Steven Smith hasn't contributed much and Micheal Hussey has returned from an injury and is yet to get some runs under his belt.

Their bowling isn't as strong as it looks either.Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait bowl well only in patches. Johnson especially has been wayward in his line and length and can easily have an off day. Indians do like the ball coming on to the bat at a decent pace and if its not in the right areas, they can tear into the opposition. The game against South Africa stands as a testament to that. Jason Krejza got a nice rhythm going against Pakistan but spinners greater than him have failed to make a mark against India in their own backyard.

Brett Lee however is the only real threat to India. He was a stand out performer in today's game against Pakistan grabbing 4 wickets for 28 in his 8 overs. He managed to get that extra bounce form a two-paced pitch and will definitely pepper the Indian batsmen with a lot of short balls. If India can see him off there is very little reason for us to wish to see Sri Lanka in the Quarters.

The Chappell Curse

A few days back when Harsha Bhogle asked Ian chappell if India would win the world cup Chappell was critical of India's weaknesses and replied in a downright negative.I was more than delighted to hear the ever ranting Aussie bone head utter those words because of what I call "The Chappell Curse" .

Ever since Greg Chappell was kicked out as the coach of the Indian Cricket team in 2007, Ian Chappell, I believe, has been holding a grudge against the Indian Players . So every time he sees an opportunity to criticize a player he grabs it with both hands, but unfortunately for him, whatever he has rambled about them, the exact opposite has happened.Let me recap.

In 2007 Sachin was suffering a form slump. He was also under a lot of pressure especially after the world cup disaster. Ian Chappell who was licking his fingers for a long time, finally wrote an article attacking Sachin, suggesting that he should retire. The article was filled with cliches "Sachin is playing for the wrong reasons","Sachin is clearly past his prime " ,"Sachin is this..Sachin is that" etc etc.. It had "print me","notice me", "talk about me" written all over it and obligingly the Australian press had a field day with it.But the curse had other ideas. It went to work slowly landing small blows on Chappell.Small blows in the form of match winning centuries, commitment and never ending hunger for runs. By the time it was done Chappell was bruised as hell.Now, Sachin is by far the best batsmen in the world.He has amassed records which Ricky Ponting, playing like he is, can't break even if he plays into his 50's.Sachin was voted the best batsmen of all time (by Australian citizens!!) pipping Sir Donald Bradman , which incidentally was again refuted by Chappell(for crying out loud!!) .

Fast forward to 2010. Ian Chappel was asked who are the two best batsmen presently playing international cricket. The reply he gave made the news for its appalling nature. He said Ricky Ponting was currently the best in the business(not surprising at all coming from a man who is bordering on Aussie fanaticism) and the second best was "JP Duminy". That's right JP.Duminy!! . Chappell must think people like Sachin, Gambhir, Kallis and de Villiers are just average cricketers .Even the dumbest cricket follower will tell you that this "JP Duminy" isn't even close to being the second best batsmen in South Africa.How the hell can he be the second best in the world?His strike rate at that point in test matches was 40 which was lower than that of Rahul Dravids'. So the curse went to work this time as well. JP Duminy has never reached any new high's in his form and Ricky Ponting - well the less said the better.

So currently I would say the curse has already started its work and in less than a month I don't see any reason why India shouldn't lift the world cup and when that does happen I hope Harsha Bhogle stops being so down to earth and ruthlessly reminds Chappell about his earlier comments and records his reaction. Ian Botham might want a copy of that!!